


Coffee and cream

by LaserRay



Category: Total Drama (Cartoon)
Genre: Duncney - Freeform, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-25 11:03:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17723963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaserRay/pseuds/LaserRay
Summary: Work life in the office is great for Courtney and Duncan. Definitely.





	1. The Lift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is just a short bit of writing about an office au for duncney that i needed to get off my chest. whether i write more on it or not is still up in the air atm. i might come back and just write some more short stories on this au revolving around these two, who knows. this is just for entertainment rn. also rating may change in the future maybe.

**6:00am.**

The usual time Courtney would push through the double glass doors of the tall office building she worked in. And like every early morning, Eva was there sitting at the front desk, eyebrows pulled together and a weight in one hand as the other shoved an apple into her mouth.

“Good morning, Eva! What a great start to the day,” she greeted, voice cheery and light.

The tired, aggravated look she got in return was to be expected. Not everyone was an early bird like herself. Plus, Eva in general was nothing but glares to everyone around her. Her entire language consisted of threats and grunts, almost as if she didn't know how else to communicate with other people. If anybody actually tried getting more out of her, they were swiftly sent off crying. Cody had been a brave soul once, asking Eva about her life story, and was then seen with tear stains down his cheeks and nervous hands. Poor guy.

Courtney didn't bother trying to say anything else as she promptly walked towards the lift, briefcase clutched in both hands. She pressed a button, waited for it to stop on the ground floor and once it did, calmly stepped inside. Just as she was about to press to go up, a loud, boisterous voice made her hand pause midway.

“Hold up!”

She recognised the person almost immediately which in turn caused her to reanimate back to life and start frantically pressing the button, pleading for it to shut the doors already.

“Come on, you rickety metal death trap, you are not going to do this to me today!” she whispered harshly under her breath, teeth grinding together.

Her eyes lit up as the doors slowly started to close before a hand shot out and pried them apart. One of her heeled feet stomped on the ground, hands balling up into fists as she glared at the doors for failing her.

In stepped a tall male, bright teal eyes zoning in on her as a smarmy grin settled on the pale face of the individual.

“Well hello there, princess, fancy running into you here.”

“Yes, it is weird seeing as you never arrive on time, Duncan” she retorted back, eyes narrowing and mouth downturned. “What, did your girlfriend finally get sick of you and kick you out of her bed?”

The man, Duncan, was already busy looking into the lift's mirror as he did up some loose buttons on his white button up, his back turned towards the small girl. “She's not my girlfriend, first of all. Secondly.” He turned back around to face her, leaning forward into her space, fingers still clinging to two buttons. “What's it to you?”

If it had been anyone else, she could imagine they would have been intimidated enough to back off and stop questioning someone like him. Practically everyone in the office had already made a judgement on Duncan, most of them fearing him in some way or another. The green mohawk, the piercings, the tattoos; it all gave off the impression that he was someone not to be messed with.

But Courtney wasn't everyone else. She never backed down from anyone. Sure, call it a fault or bad judgement call but she was nothing if not stubborn. Obviously she knew one of these days it was going to bite her in the ass and she knew Duncan definitely wasn't the kind of person to instigate a fight with (her stubbornness didn't mean she lacked fear), but her drive to compete just overtook her most of the time.

With that in mind, she raised a hand and placed it on his right pec, pushing him back so she could get him out of her space. Her heart thudded just the slightest when her palm met solid muscle there, being reminded how in shape he really was, and she had to will herself to calm down. She was sure there was already a faint redness to her cheekbones.

“It's nothing to me, _obviously_ ,” she seethed through her teeth. “I'm just suspicious as to what could cause you to actually want to be here when you're supposed to. Can't think of any other reason, that's all.”

Duncan finally leaned back, finishing off the buttons while still leaving three undone, and gave her a cheeky grin. He always messed with her in some way or another, most notably when they were alone. If it wasn't the looks he gave, it was some sly comments or a brush of a hand against her neck, arm, lower back. Etc. Honestly, at this point, she wondered if she should have just punched him square in the face and got it over with.

“Little known fact, Court, I actually work here too and you're not the only one who can be punctual.”

Her mock gasp and hand flying to her mouth caused a small smile to appear on his mouth before it disappeared just as quick.

“Duncan and punctuation in the same sentence? Unheard of,” she dramatically cried, hand dropping from her mouth to her hip then, fingers splayed out. “Honestly, you're so predictable, Duncan. I swear, if whatever little prank you're pulling today cuts into my work, I will make you sorry.”

The doors then decided to open on their floor, room laid out in front of them as they stepped off. The pierced man snorted as they walked, leaning down close to her and smirking as he spoke. “Oh trust me, I wouldn't dream of it.”

His breath ghosting over the shell of her neck and down her jaw made a shiver run down her spine, eyes widening slightly before she rushed off to her own desk, trying to not look back at him. God, he was infuriating. She knew he was up to something the moment she saw him. Whatever it was though, Courtney had already decided she would steer clear. Nothing would stop her from her duties and keep progress of her work. Diligent and punctual; two words to describe her, and she wasn't going to let some punk she worked with disrupt her day just like that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title is called that cause i need some coffee rn. it's 5am. dear god pls help me


	2. The Canteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another fight.

Duncan walked through the canteen's glass door, spying Leshawna and Heather talking amongst each other at a small table towards the back, clearly not caring much about his arrival if Heather's sniff and Leshawna's sideways glance was anything to go by. He expected a lot of this, especially the first day he arrived. He had come to Wawanakwa Co. after finally getting released from prison a few months back, a fact that he didn't exactly go flaunting around. Sure, he didn't deny it when people asked and he sure as hell appreciated the cred it gave him but he didn't want that to be the only thing he was known for. If he had been sixteen again, he would enjoy it a lot more, but turning twenty-five had gave him a lot to think about. He was lucky to even get this job considering his criminal record. It helped that the big boss and him went way back though so within a week of him coming away from the cold hard cell he lived in, he was given a chance to redeem himself with this job.

The coffee pot in front of him needed brewing so he pressed the button and grabbed a mug from the counter top, heavy sigh escaping his mouth as he hunched over his cup. The door opening to his left didn't gain his attention at first but the heels clicking against the marble floor drew his teal eyes towards the owner.

On his left side, Courtney sidled up although still trying to keep as much distance as possible. He watched out of the corner of his eye with a small smile on his face as she huffed, walking past him to reach a mug. Setting it down on the side, she looked towards where the sugar packets were kept and that's when he noticed where they were placed. For whatever reason, they seemed to have been placed on a shelf, high above the sides and out of reach from the Hispanic girl. Duncan watched as she chewed on her bottom lip, eyes darting back and forth between the sweetener and her cup. If she wanted that sugar, he knew she'd have to ask him to help her and he also happened to know how much she hated asking for help from him of all people.

He turned so his back leant against the side, arms crossed and wide grin situated on his face. Oh, he could wait this out. Sure, it would have been more polite and nicer for him to just hand it to her but then he'd miss out on the opportunity of watching her struggle to ask him for help. She was so frustrated with the thought of asking him to give her a hand that he watched as she actually looked towards Heather and Leshawna as if eye contact was enough to get them up and moving.

If the sigh was anything to go by though, he figured she had already decided that he was her only hope. So feigning that he hadn't been watching all of this unfold, he moved his eyes so they were staring at the floor and let his smile drop from his mouth.

“Duncan...” Her voice was so bitter when she said his name but God, if he didn't love to hear it either way.

“Yes, princess?”

“What have I told you about that nickname?” Courtney hissed through gritted teeth, eyes staring daggers down at him.

“That it's terrible, that you'd rather hear anything else?” he taunted, eyes full of mirth as he turned the upper part of his body towards the short woman, arms still crossed against his chest.

“Oh my God. Just...pass me the sugar from that shelf!” she demanded, one elegant finger pointed towards the thing she was after.

“Hmm, not sure that's the polite way to ask for stuff,” Duncan stroked his chin, tapping his goatee. “I'm sure there's a word missing there.”

“What? As if I have to ask you for something nicely! You're never polite!”

“Ah ah, that's not the words I'm looking for.”

Courtney yelled out in indignation, foot stomping, fists clenched and arms held stiffly at her sides. He could see her nose wrinkle in anger and there was a very evident redness splotched across her cheeks, from anger or humiliation he wasn't too sure.

“Forget it, I don't need your help, I can do it myself if you're going to act like such a barbarian about this!” She spat harshly in his face, turning her entire body away from him. And then, as if she wasn't at her work place, she started climbing up onto the counter. Given her outfit though, she clearly had realised her mistake when she was up there and moved one of her hands to keep her pencil black skirt down. His eyes had drifted towards the bit of thigh that had been exposed briefly before snapping back up towards her face when she readjusted.

Her hand clasped around a sugar packet and she smiled in relief before that smile quickly disappeared when she lost balance. Thankfully there was a shelf she grabbed onto quickly but Duncan's hand worked of its own accord when he realised she might fall backwards off the side. His right hand splayed across the lower part of her back and pushed gently so she was more comfortably kneeled on the counter.

“Whoa, steady there, princess. Didn't realise you were willing to hurt yourself for sugar,” he laughed, snarkily.

She got down from the counter with his help and the moment her feet were securely on flat ground, her hand shoved his away and she spun in his direction, finger pointed in his face.

“Keep your gorilla hands to yourself, pervert!” she yelled, mouth downturned.

“I was helping you, sorry I saved you from falling!” he shouted back, leaning into her space.

“I was doing just fine on my own! You were just looking for an excuse to touch me!”

“Oh please, if I wanted to get some I wouldn't go to you, I could get it from someone who's not a stuck up bore fest!”

She screeched, face red and the picture of furiousness. As he predicted, Courtney swiftly spun in the direction of the coffee machine, poured her coffee and left with her sugar packet in hand, not even bothering to glance in his direction. He huffed out a breath, fingers coming up to rub the bridge of his nose before he too poured his coffee, putting a fair amount of milk in it. Without even having to turn around, he could feel Heather and Leshawna watching his back, probably both laughing at his predicament.

Still not bothering to turn around and look at them, he said, “What do you guys want?”

Heather was the first to say something, standing with one hand on her hip and the other wrapped around her glass of lemonade. “You're so into her, it's unbelievably sad.” Her expression turned thoughtful. “And pathetic.”

Leshawna walked past her, also giving him a very amused smirk. “I'm gonna have to agree with little miss crazy here; you got it bad, boy.”

He quickly turned to them and glared both the girls down. “You don't know what you're talking about.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Save me the bad boy loner speech, okay? I don't have the time nor enough care to hear it. I just wish you guys would get a room already so the rest of us don't have to watch your boring lover spats,” Heather remarked, opening up the canteen door.

Duncan's grimace quickly turned into an evil grin as he looked at her. “What, you mean like you and Alejandro?”

The tall girl was quick to turn and give him a mortified look at the comment and snarled at him. “How dare you! I would never stoop that low!”

Duncan clucked his tongue, quickly getting bored. “Whatever, man.”

Leshawna rolled her eyes at them both and exited the lunch room, Heather in tow. “I'm not about to stand around and watch you spat with another girl.”

Duncan's grip tightened on his cup of coffee, trying not to let their comments frustrate him too much. What the fuck would they know? Heather was stuck in her own little 'will they, won't they' with Alejandro and Leshawna hadn't been in more than a fling for months now. Psh, they were just trying to rile him up, that's all.

He didn't have any sort of feelings for Courtney. Yeah, she was hot but she was also a rigid know it all. Why would he want to get with someone who would challenge him on everything?

Yeah, he had nothing to worry about.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is coming so soon cause im rlly on a duncney kick lately idk 
> 
> i have also been watching total dramarama as well so that could be why
> 
> anyway enjoy duncan and courtney arguing like the pair of children they are


	3. The Panic Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney's not having a good time.

Courtney's hands rifled through the drawer of paperwork, flipping through masses of thin white sheets as she desperately looked for the 'Mr Stevens' file. Her entire desk was a mess, papers strewn everywhere, dirty coffee mugs placed around her computer, pens and pencils flung onto the floor and a lot of sticky notes in places they didn't belong (One was on the back of her chair and she still had no idea how it got there).

If she couldn't find this file, she was in deep shit. But more importantly, her pride would be skewered and placed on a plaque for everyone to see how awful she was at her job. She needed to make sure everything went smoothly just so she wouldn't have to hear “Courtney works all the time and this is what she has to show for it?” and “I knew her parents paid for her to be here”. As if she needed any more criticism in her life, she dealt with enough crap as it was.

She began to gnaw on her bottom lip, worry evident by the crease between her eyebrows and panic set in her eyes. Her hands were on the verge of shaking and she didn't know whether she'd last much longer before she went into full blown rage mode. She had been known to fly off the handle a lot around here, her most notorious one was when she got so angry that she had smashed up an entire office room. Desk fans had been thrown, chairs snapped in half, plants flown through the air. Etc. It was a disaster site after Courtney had stormed out. She still didn't know how she had survived that one. She liked to believe it was because her manager knew how good she was at her job and needed her, but it was more likely that the manager just had a fondness for her and wasn't willing to kick her just yet.

Shaking hands reached up and tugged at brown hair, her chest rising and falling dramatically as she dropped onto the spinning desk chair beside her desk. She was aware her desk neighbours were probably growing more concerned with her behaviour now, especially those who had seen her freak out. Bridgette, who had a desk right next to hers, was keeping a close eye on her and was slowly starting to turn towards her as if prepared for a Courtney breakdown at any moment.

“Hey, hey, come here,” she heard Bridgette's voice softly say, beckoning her over to the blonde girl's desk. Courtney made no attempt to move from her hunched position, eyes still squeezed shut and breathing laboured. When Bridgette saw her best friend was making no move to get closer to her, the blonde girl positioned her foot so she could easily pull Courtney's chair over to hers and wrapped an arm around her, other hand rubbing her thigh. “Courtney, listen to me, it's okay-”

“It's _not_ okay, Bridgette! I have people relying on me to complete this and I can't let them down,” Courtney argued, hands dragging down her face. “They're going to be so mad when they hear I've lost this important file. There's no getting around that.”

Okay, Bridgette couldn't really say anything to that, she had a fair point. Chris very likely wasn't going to be happy about this. Or anyone working on this case for that matter.

“Agh!” Courtney cursed to herself, standing up and huffing. “I've got to get away from this for a bit, I'm just gonna...” Her words trailed off, not even knowing where she was going to go or what she was thinking at the moment. She just needed some peace and quiet and somewhere to have her mental breakdown alone. Bridgette watched after her with a concerned look, chewing on her fingernail.

\-----

The storage room was the perfect place to sit and scream. People hardly ever came here since it was the place for old documents, tech equipment and dusty old holiday decorations for office parties to sit. It was a fairly sizeable closet space, almost more of an office room than a storage one, and the lighting was always dim. There was no point in trying to turn the light off since it never worked. It just stayed sitting there collecting dust and cobwebs, sometimes flickering but that was the only evidence that it actually did anything. Some of the more emotionally vulnerable people came here to have a good cry sometimes but generally, it was left alone.

Courtney slipped in and ever so quietly shut the door, trying not to let anyone see her go into the panic room, as they had so eloquently called it. The last thing she wanted was for others to wonder what caused her to break down or even worse, try and comfort her in this trying time. Yeah, like any of them would be able to help her. They were all awful people in their own way.

' _I'm not any better.._ ' she thought to herself, sitting on the floor and pulling her knees up to her chest. She didn't have any room to judge. She was tolerable at the best of times, as she had slowly come to realise. She was starting to think they were all like that though, all of them only redeemable because of a couple of things.

“I'm so much worse,” Courtney whispered, eyes squeezing in an attempt not to cry. She hadn't cried in years, always saying to herself there was no point. What good would it do, honestly? It wouldn't solve any of her problems so what was the point?

She hated this feeling so much, wanted it to leave as soon as it came. Why did she have to feel this? Why her?

A quiet knock on the door startled the brunette, eyes widening to the point it was comical. Who had seen her come here? Why were they bothering to knock? Why were they even bothering to come here at all?

The door creaked open and she sucked in a breath, holding it for a while as she waited for the person to show themselves.

Her eyebrows drew together in confusion when she saw the green mohawk, the piercings, the teal eyes looking at her in worry.

“Duncan..?” Courtney breathed out, voice clearly showing how confused she felt at seeing him.

He shut the door, quietly sat beside her, crossing his arms and glaring at the wall opposite them.

“Bridgette wouldn't tell me where you were so I just kinda guessed you were here,” he grumbled, eyes not daring to look over at her.

Courtney frowned, resting her cheek on her arms, legs still drawn to her chest as she tried to appear smaller. “Why were you looking for me?”

One side of his brow lifted in question, finally looking over at her. “You think no-one noticed you panicking at your desk back there?”

She sighed, dropping her forehead to her arms. Of course she hadn't been subtle about it but she didn't think people would be interested enough to keep watching after a while. Courtney was known to be a bit of a firecracker, emotion controlling her more than logic most of the time. She'd like to think it was nice balance but it was more 60/40 at this point.

Duncan shuffled in his spot and she noticed him struggling to speak, mouth opening and closing which was odd considering she couldn't get him to shut up when she wanted him to. He was never at a loss for words.

“What do you want, Duncan? Cause I'm really not in the mood to play babysitter,” she murmured, voice low and hollow.

He shifted, one leg propped up and the other spread out, left hand resting on the propped leg. “Believe it or not, I wanted to come and...I don't know, just check in, I guess.”

She didn't lift her head but her eyes still squinted in suspicion, her fingers squeezing onto her arms subconsciously. “Well, I don't believe you, you only ever want to tease me. So can you get it over with?”

She could hear him sigh. “Jesus Christ, you're so touchy, Courtney. I'm not here to do any of that, I swear.”

Silence stretched out between them. A feather could have been dropped and heard a mile away. Neither of them wanted to speak, Courtney purely because her emotions were all over the place and Duncan because he didn't want to say the wrong thing and get his head bit off. It was deafening but it relaxed Courtney enough that she could feel her hands starting to loosen up and she eventually turned her head to the side so she could see him.

“I never wanted to work here,” she angrily commented out of nowhere, staring him down.

“None of us did,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the worn out laces on his converses.

“Harold probably did.”

“Harold's also a giant nerd.”

Courtney felt her mouth involuntarily move into a smile, a small huff of laughter escaping her. She couldn't help it, Duncan managed to make her laugh without even trying sometimes.

“God, he's the biggest loser, I swear,” she responded, moving her head up so she could sit up properly. “I swear I saw him practising karate or whatever in the break room one time.”

Duncan laughed, looking at her. “Yeah, apparently he's on some ninja type shit. He keeps running his mouth about it. I'd have punched his lights out by now if I weren't already on a warning.”

She smiled at him. “You've never told me about prison, you know.”

His whole demeanour seemed to change pretty quickly at that comment. “Cause I've never wanted to.”

There was another bout of silence before she shuffled a bit closer to him then, legs moving away from her chest finally and hands resting on her thighs. “Not saying you have to but I am interested.”

He smirked down at her, leaning on his left arm to get closer to her. “I'm interested in other things.” His eyes grazed her body, going up and down, while aiming a wink at her.

She laughed, pushing his face away with her hand and standing up. “Please, you're _so_ not my type,” she quipped, rolling her eyes but still wearing a huge grin on her face.

Duncan watched as she opened the door, smiling after her. “I know you like me, princess.”

“In your dreams, maybe,” she replied, flipping him the finger.

He stood up and they both left the room, standing outside of it, staring at each other. Courtney felt something inside of her flip a little, almost like she suddenly grew a whole sanctuary of butterflies in her stomach. Having his attention like this made her feel a rush of excitement every time, her heart running a mile a minute.

“Thank you for talking to me, Duncan. It actually means a lot..” she spoke softly under her breath, not even sure he'd care or if he'd even understand how much he had helped her in that moment. Whether he knew it or not though, just his presence had done magnitudes for her panic induced mind and she had needed that more than ever right then.

Something about Duncan calmed her down and she wasn't sure what it was. Honestly, it was shocking to think he could even have that effect on her if you took into account the amount of times his presence riled her up. He drove her crazy and yet, he was somehow an anchor when she was rocking heavily against a sea of anxiety. Some part of her, a huge part that is, really enjoyed the uncertainty of what he was going to bring to her life. It was a scary thing to have to admit to herself considering how much she loved routine and order.

But she relished in the fact that at least she didn't have to deal with these feelings and him outside of work. She could have her routine for most of her schedule.

They parted ways, Duncan watching her walk as she felt his eyes follow her back when she strutted over to her desk.

Yeah, she could handle him and his chaos at work, she was pretty sure of that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry that there's just an influx of chapters coming out of this. im just having a fun old time writing this au tbh
> 
> also i honestly hc that courtney suffers from at least a small amount of anxiety and it seems possible that she feels a heavy amount of pressure which could lead to a lot of insecurities and self-doubt. she's such a fun character to write about. im struggling w/ duncan's character though, i just can't get a grasp on his personality outside of cartoonishly rebellious so tryna humanise him is so difficult.
> 
> but whatevs have another fun chapter guys peace


End file.
